>According to some guy at Sony, they admit that one next-gen disc format is
better than two for consumers and are “open to discussions.” Either
they learned from all of their past format war failures (Betamax,
Minidisc and Memory Stick spring to mind) or this is simply a token PR
move and when actual discussions commence they’ll remain as bull-headed
as they have all along. I’m not getting my hopes up since Sony has been
all about Sony in the last several years instead of all about consumers
and better technology. However, my cynicism probably won’t be warranted
since they finally conceded to LCD’s as viable TV’s (oh what a novel
concept) and now have devices on the market sporting SD drives (take the
Sony Reader for one). I truly believe that there are some great people
left at Sony but their common-sense ideas and pro-consumer attitudes get
drowned out amidst all of the self-congratulatory speech. Take, for
example, Kutaragi’s claim that people would buy a PS3 even if no games
were available (yeah, that tactic worked *real* well for the PSP).

Maybe 2007 will be a banner year for Sony. I don’t really care, though,
Samsung has already dethroned them in my mind and on my wishlist.
eriK via sidekick